Several Facebook (FB) users are implying that Judge Tomoko Akane, president of the International Criminal Court (ICC), said the Court has no jurisdiction over the Philippines. The clip making the rounds online needs context.
In it, Akane was talking about the ICC’s jurisdiction over specific crimes. She did not refer to the Philippines.
A reader sent a request to VERA Files’ Messenger Misinformation Tipline to verify the FB reel. Text was added to the video, which read:
“ICC NAGSALITA NA.” (ICC SPEAKS UP.)
The video featured a clip of Akane speaking to the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights on March 19. She said:
“We don’t have jurisdiction… Same thing I can tell you. For example, if crimes occur on the soil of non-state parties by non-state parties’ persons, we don’t have jurisdiction whatever the crime is. And this UN [United Nations] Security Council referred the situation to us, so we have the limitation under the Rome Statute what kind of crimes and what kind of people, the jurisdiction on the territory…”
Commenters under the post were under the impression that Akane was referring to the Court’s jurisdiction over crimes committed in the Philippines, or that former president Rodrigo Duterte would be freed from his detention.
Akane’s quote was taken out of context. She was responding to a question from Parliament (listen at 11:31:40) about the Court’s jurisdiction over crimes of ecocide, or widespread destruction of the environment. She said the ICC can only rule over crimes outlined in the Rome Statute.
Akane spoke to the subcommittee appealing for the European Union’s support amid the United States’ sanctions against the ICC. U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Feb. 6 insisting that the ICC has no jurisdiction in America and declaring as a national threat any effort by the Court to investigate, detain or prosecute American citizens or on American soil.
The clip circulated days after Duterte’s arrest last March 11, and continued to receive engagements this April. The former president is detained at the ICC headquarters in The Netherlands, awaiting trial on Sept. 23 to confirm his charges of crimes against humanity.
The post was uploaded by an FB user and has garnered over 27,800 reactions, 4,000 comments and 22,000 shares.
